Ontario Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown addresses supporters and the media in Toronto on Sunday, February 18, 2018. The former party leader resigned his position after sexual misconduct allegations, only to re-enter race for his vacated position after refuting the allegations.Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Crash a runaway tour bus into a burning garbage pile and you pretty much have the state of Conservative politics in Ontario right now. And by all accounts, Ontarians are loving every minute of it.

Opinion polls appear to show that just about anybody could lead this dysfunctional mess of a party to victory in June — heck, even Patrick Brown — which tells you voters either hate the governing Liberals that much or just love a good dumpster fire.

Some of the harshest criticism of Brown has come from Eastern Ontario, where a handful of PC caucus members must now face the prospect of Brown’s returning to the helm, fresh from being shamed, fired and turfed from a caucus window.

Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod was among Brown’s harshest critics once allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced publicly. She cheered Brown’s demise, suggesting it was “good news for taking back our party.”

She even claimed to have taken her own rumours of Brown misbehaviour to party brass, though she walked back that claim somewhat when challenged by the party executive.

Not sure how MacLeod could serve in a Brown-led caucus, let alone in government after having expressed relief at his abrupt departure as leader and urging his removal from caucus.

“I care as much about Patrick Brown as Kathleen Wynne does about Ontario,” she said in a memorable tweet that may yet come back to haunt her in the weeks ahead.

It’s no secret there was already bad blood between MacLeod and Brown.

After winning the leadership, Brown selected then-PC MPP Jack Maclaren to represent Eastern Ontario in caucus, a slight MacLeod never fully forgave, although she and Brown seemed to patch things up enough to ride an elephant together during one of Brown’s all too frequent visits to India.

MacLeod has vowed to remain neutral in the leadership race now unfolding although it’s hard to believe she isn’t rooting for anybody-but-Brown to take the party into the next election.

Her criticisms of Brown’s leadership pale compared to those of Randy Hillier, the always outspoken MPP from Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, who has reiterated that he believes Brown was unfit to be party leader or premier.

Hillier has issued a litany of allegations against Brown’s leadership, publicly alleging he was responsible for everything from fraudulent memberships to unethical expenses resulting in $700,000 in missing funds.

It’s hard to believe Hillier has any future as a PC MPP, assuming Brown completes his political comeback.

In Ottawa South, PC candidate Karin Howard said she agreed with Brown’s original decision to step down.

“In light of the seriousness of these allegations, the correct decision was for Patrick Brown to resign immediately. We will choose a new leader who will hold Kathleen Wynne to account and defeat her in the next election.”

We’ll see whether that ends up hurting her down the road.

If Brown is able to pull off the political resurrection of the century, he will likely look to Goldie Ghamari, a strong PC candidate in the new riding of Carleton, to be his flag bearer in this region.

Ghamari is an impressive candidate who has shown unwavering support for Brown throughout the leadership fracas, tweeting this weekend that she and her family “couldn’t be happier” to be supporting him in the leadership race.

Some unofficial polls give Brown a fighting chance against the four other leadership candidates — Caroline Mulroney, Christine Elliott, Doug Ford and Tanya Granic Allen, who has mounted formidable opposition to Brown’s efforts to marginalize social conservatives in the lead-up to the June election.

While Brown may have enough support to mount a good showing, particularly among former caucus mates, it seems unlikely he will be able to return to the helm against a much improved roster of leadership adversaries.

In the end, it may fall to a fresh new voice, such as Caroline Mulroney, to bind the party’s wounds in the aftermath of a short, sharp leadership campaign in time to face the Wynne Liberals in a general election.

For now, though, break out the popcorn and enjoy the show.

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Rick Gibbons is former publisher of the Ottawa Sun. He can be heard weekdays, 1-3 p.m. on 1310 NEWS

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